Treasury Knew IRS Was Planning Apology

By

Damian Paletta,

Peter Nicholas and

John McKinnon

Updated May 21, 2013 12:11 a.m. ET

The Internal Revenue Service briefed the Treasury Department extensively last month about a looming inspector general's report that would find the agency had inappropriately targeted for extra scrutiny applications from conservative groups seeking tax-exempt status, a new timeline of events shows.

The IRS consulted Treasury in late April about its plans to pre-emptively apologize for its actions, and a flurry of conversations...